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The first thing I remember was I used to go dancing down the boat house (I was 6 years old).
Joyce Saunders and Hilda King were the dance teachers.
We were down there when the sirens went.
I was walking up Wigston Lane there was a flare and then the bombs.
The building Freeman, Hardy and Willis got it bad.
We had an Anderson Shelter — my dad made it.
When the bombs dropped dad was working and we all had to go down to help clear up at Freeman, Hardy and Willis.
Dad was in the Navy during World War 1 and in the RAF during World War 2.
When Coventry was bombed from the back of our house you could see the lights in the sky and hear the bombs — my mother was upset every time.

Where Eyres Monsell is now there was a search light and a cat gun.

A friend I went to school with was evacuated from London.
There was him and his brother and sister and his mother.
The only place a bomb was dropped near us was Cavendish Road and it killed his mother and his sister. He was 6 years old and in the outside toilet — it blew his leg off.
He had a tin leg though and he could do anything — he could out walk me and drive.
During the war he would go to the hospital and show the people there what you could do if you'd lost a leg.
I actually saw the plane come over and saw the bombs but the siren went off 5 minutes AFTER the plane had gone.

My brother went into the Royal Navy — he volunteered at 17 and went to Japan.

We had an evacuee from Croydon and on VE Day (I was about 12 years old), he took me down to the Palace — it was unbelievable and I will never forget that.

This story was entered on to the People's War website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Raymond Freakley and has been added with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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